


across our great divide (there is a glorious sunrise)

by seekrest



Series: The Secret Sessions [13]
Category: Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: (only a smidge I promise), Alternate Universe, Discussions of Capitalism, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Identity Reveal, Light Angst, Michelle Jones is a Little Shit, Mutual Pining, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, and there was only one bed, canon nudged so far left that it doesn't even exist, the MJs continue to hold the only brain cell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28031661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: “I’m going to help you obviously,” Peter says with a grin before his expression sobers. “I just want to be sure this is what you want to do.”Michelle sees it for what it is - an out not just in essentially using Peter to show up her ex-boyfriend, something that Peter clearly doesn’t mind and if anything seems a little too eager to participate in.But it was still a choice, something that could prove to be disastrous if things go wrong.“Yeah,” Michelle says, ignoring the conflicted feelings in her gut as she stares back at Peter.“I’m sure.”
Relationships: Michelle Jones & Mary Jane Watson, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: The Secret Sessions [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537501
Comments: 123
Kudos: 145
Collections: Marvel Trumps Hate 2020





	1. You Haven't Met the New Me Yet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spiders_n](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiders_n/gifts).



> To spiders_n who was my winning bidder for the Marvel Trumps Hate auction!

“Happy Holidays!”

Michelle fakes a smile as best she can, putting another tick in the box of all the reasons she should finally quit her job at Oscorp.

_#17 Jeanine’s incessant Polaroid pictures_

“It looks _perfect_!” Jeanine squeals, Michelle holding back an eye roll as she squeezes past the group now that the picture is over with. She didn’t mind pictures or polaroids or “capturing memories” as Jeanine put it, but not with her co-workers. Michelle didn’t have any fantasies of living together with her co-workers like they were all back in college and certainly didn’t care for the kind of forced bonding that their team leader insisted on. 

Michelle had a job to do, one that as each day passed made her reconsider just how much she actually wanted to stay with. 

She had enough savings now that she could jump ship, even if the thought of running herself through the gamut of interviews around the same time as a new crop of enterprising law students was less than ideal.

If Michelle was honest with herself, the law gig was fun and fascinating but she still held a secret desire to be an artist - the sketchbooks she stared at longingly anytime she passed Strand calling out to her. 

She loved law and loved the chance to work hard to actually help _solve_ the problems in the world. But Michelle didn’t feel as if she was doing that at Oscorp and hadn’t for awhile, not when her expertise felt increasingly like it was a wrong fit for the type of work she was doing to begin with. 

_#14 I’ve gained enough experience to switch industries_

Michelle sighs as she walks back to her desk, the open office setting being yet another tick against Oscorp though it wasn’t on her official list. Working with them hadn’t always been so bad and despite feeling like her soul was being slowly sucked out of her by a corporate machine, the benefits and the people weren’t _that_ bad.

But it wasn’t what Michelle wanted anymore, a part of her wondering if she was getting too old to think that her career could actually be fulfilling rather than what it was-- a means to an end to pay rent. 

She shoves that away as she sits back down at her desk, only to be reminded of reason #3 why she was ready to leave Oscorp. 

“Hey there MJ,” Charlie Weiderman says smarmily, Michelle pressing her lips together as she logs back into her computer. 

“It’s Michelle,” she says without even looking up, Charlie laughing as he sits on the table - leaning against it like he owns the place. 

“Someday you’re gonna let me call you MJ. Someday we’re gonna be _friends_ ,” Charlie replies, Michelle still tacitly ignoring him as she scans through the dozens of emails she’s already gotten. 

_I doubt it_ , Michelle thinks but doesn’t say, ignoring Charlie in the hopes that he’ll get bored and go bother someone else. 

“Are you harassing my employees again, Weiderman?” Another familiar voice says, Michelle’s stomach twisting itself when she recognizes it. She actually turns to the voice then, seeing Harry Osborn’s amused smirk. 

He smiles at her, Michelle chewing the inside of her cheek before saying, “Sounds like you have a pest problem.”

“ _Ouch_ ,” Charlie says, Michelle finally sparing a glance to him as Charlie slaps a hand across his chest before looking back up to Charlie. “You sure now how to pick them, Har.”

“Charlie--” Harry says warningly, Charlie immediately putting his hands up and standing up from the desk as he walks back over to Harry. Michelle stays silent, not because she can’t defend herself but because she’s not particularly interested in wasting any energy in engaging with the juvenile whims of Charlie Weiderman. 

He didn’t even work at Oscorp yet he hung around like a bad smell anytime Harry was in the office, something that had only become more and more frequent since his father had died. 

The fact that Harry found himself on _her_ floor rather than with the other suits wasn’t lost on her, though Michelle doubted that their romance had any chance of rekindling. 

“I’ll stop, I’ll stop,” Charlie says as he stands by Harry, folding his arms together before nudging Harry in the side and saying, “But you gotta admit, man. You know how to pick them.”

Harry grimaces, Michelle counting down the seconds till the encounter is over when Charlie speaks again. 

“You got MJ here who broke your heart without a second glance and now Mary Jane, a spit fire if I ever saw one.”

Michelle’s fingers stutter over the keyboard but she recovers, though not quick enough to see Harry wince when Charlie says, “Maybe _she’ll_ let me call her MJ since Michelle’s--”

“Has a ton of work to do and is probably sick of us wasting her time,” Harry interjects, Charlie going to say something more only for Harry to send him another warning glance.

Charlie rolls his eyes, looking back to Michelle before winking. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll get the chance to meet her when we get to Belleyare,” Charlie says with a smirk, Harry looking like he was going to snap only for Charlie to give a little wave and walk away.

Michelle just stares at Harry, Harry looking back at her apologetically before saying, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s like I said. You have a pest problem,” Michelle says smoothly while reading the same three lines of the email in front of her. 

Harry lets out a huff that’s almost a laugh, Michelle smirking despite herself as she looks back at him.

Harry for his part does look apologetic, tilting his head before saying, “He’s an ass.”

“He’s _your_ friend.”

“You got me there,” Harry says with a grin, the air between them turning awkward in the same way that it always did when they spent any length of time together. 

For all the reasons that Michelle wants to leave Oscorp, avoiding Harry himself wasn’t really one of them. Dating Harry throughout law school had been simple and uncomplicated, part of the reason why she even took a job at Oscorp being the possibility of their life merging a little more permanently. 

Five months after their romance ended and Michelle was beginning to wonder how she could have so easily fooled herself into letting anyone help direct her life plans even if at the time, it had felt like a risk worth taking. 

Harry was stable and smart and rich and perfectly boring, a love that felt more routine and like what she _should_ do more than anything. It’s what attracted her to him initially, just as easily as his sea-blue eyes and charming smile - a sense of security that was appealing. 

But a love worth building shouldn’t be built on _should’s_ or _security_ , not when the more time that passed with him she could see that while she loved him, she wasn’t _in love_ with him - certainly not as much as he was in love with her.

Which is why it surprises her and catches her a little off guard to hear that Harry’s already moved on, the words out of her mouth before she can stop them when she says, “Mary Jane huh?”

Harry blushes, looking embarrassed even if he objectively shouldn’t considering _she_ was the one who broke up with him months ago. 

“Yeah uh, sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you--”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Michelle says quickly, a spike of something she didn’t want to name flowing through her. “I’m happy for you.”

Harry deflates at that, Michelle realizing how much she sounds as she amends, “I mean it, Har. I’m happy for you.”

Harry searches her face for a beat, pursing his lips before finally nodding and saying, “Thanks, MJ.”

He laughs, shaking his head a few times before saying, “Charlie’s right though. I think you two would get along.”

“Well it sounds like I’ll get to meet her,” Michelle says, forcing a smile as Harry holds her gaze for a beat before nodding a few times. 

“Yeah, yeah of course. I didn’t know you were coming to Belleayre this year. I thought…” Harry trails off, seemingly realizing how _he_ must sound in anticipating that Michelle wouldn’t go to the same company retreat that she has for the past three years that she’s worked here.

Michelle despised the forced bonding tactics of Oscorp, something Harry was already intimately aware of. But Belleayre was something she genuinely looked forward to every year, a retreat from the city and a chance to relax and sketch without any other distractions being one of the perks that she enjoyed from working at Oscorp. 

She could deal with the team bonding exercises if it meant that she could have an all-inclusive paid vacation following the week of Christmas. 

It made sense though, for him to wonder if she would still be joining - considering the last time they had talked about Belleayre, it was all but implied that they’d be leaving there with more than good memories but a ring on her finger. 

Michelle doesn’t quite know how to answer him, feeling a little awkward as Harry says, “Anyway, I’m sorry. I won’t keep you. I’m uh, glad to hear that you’re joining us still.”

Harry smiles before taking a few steps back and walking away, Michelle just watching him as he does. 

The thing is, Michelle _hadn’t_ planned on going to Belleayre this year - or at the very least, she hadn’t decided. For as much as she loved the vacation, she hadn’t been sure how she felt about spending all that time with Harry and by default, Charlie. 

Now learning that Harry wasn’t only coming but bringing a new girlfriend set something off in Michelle that was childish and insecure. The mature thing would be to go and be the twenty-eight year old woman that she is or better, to not go at all and avoid any kind of immature plans that Charlie has in place, knowing him. 

Harry might be a better ex than some of the partners Michelle’s had in the past but his friendship with Charlie was a massive blindspot, knowing he’d get suckered into some scheme that would just grate at Michelle’s insides. 

She _should_ just tap out, ignore the childish remarks that Charlie would give about the whole thing. 

But Michelle was stubborn to a fault, an insatiable need to prove herself and a competitive streak that has carried her throughout her entire life. She didn’t need to show Harry up and genuinely meant it when she said she was happy for him.

That didn’t stop her from forming a plan as she clicked through her emails, already running through options for how to approach the topic. 

* * *

“You want me to _what_?” 

Michelle bites the inside of her cheek as she picks at her lo mein with her chopsticks. 

“If you’re gonna make fun of me--”

“I’m not making fun of you,” Peter interjects, Michelle giving him a look as he smirks. “I’m _not_. I promise, I’m just… wow, MJ.”

“ _What?”_ Michelle says, holding back the urge to roll her eyes as Peter Parker looks ten seconds away from bursting out laughing.

“Nothing,” Peter says a little too innocently as he shoves a piece of chicken in his mouth, noisily chewing before saying, “Just didn’t take you for the jealous type.”

“I’m not jealous,” Michelle says quickly, Peter almost choking on his chicken as he laughs.

“Uh huh, totally. Not jealous,” Peter says with a grin, grabbing one of the napkins from the take out bag. He wipes his mouth and swallows down the rest of his food before saying, “Which is why you’re totally making the _really normal_ plan to have me pretend to be your fake boyfriend to show up your _ex_ -boyfriend.”

“When you put it like _that_ ,” Michelle mutters, stabbing at the shrimp on her own plate as Peter laughs. 

“I’m joking, of course I’ll go with you, MJ.”

Michelle glances back up, Peter smiling at her before saying, “I mean, it’s not like Harry won’t believe it.”

For the second time in one day, Michelle doesn’t know how to reply - Peter seemingly realizing the delicate topic that he’s touched on before he quickly turns his attention back to his food. 

Of all the good traits Harry had, his jealousy at how close her and Peter were was something that they’d never been quite able to see eye to eye on. 

Michelle’s deeply embarrassing high school crush on Peter Parker had been old news by the time she met Harry Osborn, just another story she told about her life before they met just like she talked about the time her and her girlfriend in college got locked out of their apartment. 

It was a cosmic fluke that the ‘Peter’ she had a crush on when she was an awkward teenager ended up being the very same Peter that Harry had met at college at ESU - Michelle remembering the painfully awkward night they all met up and realized just how interconnected their lives really were. 

That night had led to one of the bigger fights that her and Harry had ever had, something that in hindsight just proved that they were never going to have any kind of future together if Harry couldn’t handle Michelle having close guy friends - not with how quickly her and Peter hit it off that night. 

Whatever awkwardness they’d had when they were in high school, Michelle because of her embarrassing crush on him and Peter in hiding _Spider-Man_ was long gone as adults - a part of Michelle wondering if that night in the bar had set off the end of her and Harry’s relationship before anything else. 

Whatever the case was, Michelle “won” Peter in the breakup, he and Harry’s plan to “reconnect” not really going as well as it arguably should have after Harry found out that they’d gone to high school together - much less making the connection that Peter was the same guy she had a crush on in high school.

It was only further complicated with the knowledge that Peter was Spider-Man, something that Michelle knew from years of observing him and yet he’d decidedly _not_ shared - with either her or Harry it seemed from how much Harry vocally discussed his dislike of him.

Michelle’s conspiracy theory days hadn’t ended when she got older, just got smarter - being the kind of observant person who had a pretty good guess to why Harry hated Spider-Man and why Peter always got so uncomfortable about everything, if the reddit theories of who Norman Osborn had _really_ been had any weight. 

It was probably unfair of her to ask Peter to serve as her cover for a boyfriend considering the circumstances, just as Michelle thought it unfair that a year after they’d found their way back into their lives and Peter still hadn’t told her the truth about what he got up to most nights. 

Yet that’s not why she asked him to do this, despite whatever latent hurt she shoves away at the thought that he still didn’t trust her with his secret. 

Peter _was_ the best option in this clusterfuck of a situation, the perfect person that she could’ve believably pass as a new interest from Harry and Charlie’s perspective while also being someone that she would actually enjoy spending time with for more than a few days at a time. 

“If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I probably should just… suck it up and ignore it anyway,” Michelle offers, maturity and logic replacing the innate childish sentiment of a plan that was better left in the cheesy holiday romantic comedies that she’d never admit to loving.

“I’ll do it,” Peter says quickly, Michelle looking back up at him in surprise. He looks a little sheepish, tapping his chopstick against his plate. 

“I mean, it’s basically a free vacation right?”

“Good to know where your priorities are, Parker,” Michelle deadpans. Peter laughs, Michelle smiling despite herself.

“I’m going to help you _obviously_ ,” Peter says with a grin before his expression sobers. “I just want to be sure this is what you want to do.”

Michelle sees it for what it is - an out not just in essentially using Peter to show up her ex-boyfriend, something that Peter clearly doesn’t mind and if anything seems a little too eager to participate in. 

But it was still a choice, something that could prove to be disastrous if things go wrong. 

“Yeah,” Michelle says, ignoring the conflicted feelings in her gut as she stares back at Peter. 

“I’m sure.” 


	2. I See This For What It Is

“So what’s the game plan again?”

Michelle squints at Peter out of the corner of her eye as they walk up the steps from the subway station towards the bus depot where Oscorp chartered a bus to take them to Belleayre.

It saved Michelle gas but it also meant that her and Peter’s “relationship” would be put under a microscope that much sooner.

“There is no game plan,” Michelle says, Peter frowning at her as she continues, “I told you, this isn’t a heist or anything. You’re my plus one to the company retreat.”

“A plus one that’s also pretending to be your boyfriend so you don’t look lame to the ex-boyfriend you dumped, who not only owns the company but is bringing along a _new_ girlfriend.”

Michelle frowns just as Peter grins, winking at her before saying, “Okay, I’ll stop. I’ll stop.”

Michelle stops, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I knew this was a bad idea. It’s stupid. Let’s just go, I’ll call and—“

“No, MJ, come on. I’m joking,” Peter says, Michelle bringing her hand down as Peter swings his backpack over his shoulder— looking more like he had ten years ago when they were seniors in high school as he says, “I wouldn’t want to go alone to one of these things anyway.”

“You make me sound petty,” Michelle replies, wondering now if it was too late to turn right back around to the subway, head home and stop this ridiculous plan before it can go even further. 

Peter gives her a look, Michelle sighing as she rolls her eyes and concedes, “Okay, _yes_. It’s petty and stupid and it’s exactly why we should just—“

“MJ!”

Michelle winces, knowing that it was entirely too late to back up now when she turns to the voice calling her and sees none other than Charlie fucking Weiderman again. 

_No turning back now_ , Michelle thinks as she fakes the best smile that she can - inwardly scowling as Charlie’s eyes widen when he sees the two of them together.

“Peter Parker, you move _fast_ ,” Charlie says, the mischievous gleam in his eyes only furthering the churning that Michelle feels in her gut. “I knew you had it bad for her but _damn_.”

He turns to Michelle before saying, “And YOU. When I saw you had a plus one—“

“You looked at the guest list?” Michelle interjects, Charlie continuing on without missing a beat.

“—I thought for sure you were just bullshitting or we’re gonna find some poor Tinder date to schmooze up at the holidays but,” Charlie shakes his head as he grins, “Peter fucking Parker. Bravo.”

Before either of them get the chance to reply, Charlie laughs to himself before clapping his hand on Peter’s shoulder - Michelle noticing how Peter grits his teeth together.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” Charlie exclaims, wrapping an arm around Peter’s neck in a fake headlock that Peter deftly gets himself out of. Charlie looks surprised only to shrug and walk ahead of them, Peter sharing a look with Michelle that she can immediately read without saying another word.

 _Are you ready for this_?

Michelle sighs, giving him a half-smile as she adjusts the strap of her own carry on.

_Ready as I’ll ever be._

* * *

“You want my peanuts?”

Michelle smirks, taking the little bag that Peter has extended towards her.

“Sure,” she easily replies, Peter grinning at her as their fingers brush.

“Sure that’s not the only nuts you’ll be getting this weekend huh?”

Peter’s grin immediately turns into a frown, something Michelle immediately mirrors when Charlie takes that exact moment to pass them by.

“Can I help you?” Peter asks, Michelle noticing the tightness in his eyes as he stares Charlie down.

Charlie for his part seems completely oblivious, intentionally so as he avoids Peter’s gaze and looks towards Michelle.

“Thought you weren’t a snacky person.”

“You thought wrong,” Michelle deadpans. She can physically feel herself getting annoyed from Charlie’s presence, Peter clearly feeling the same from the tension that he’s carrying in his shoulders.

But before Charlie can open his mouth and say something else monumentally stupid, another voice calls out to him.

“Charlie honey, stop bothering people,” Mary Jane says, her voice loud and clear enough that the mild chatter on the bus goes quiet as everyone stares at Charlie.

Charlie for his part actually looks embarrassed, glancing back to where Mary Jane and Harry are sitting up at the front as he says, “I’m not—“

“You are and I can feel it from here. Sit down before you hurt yourself,” Mary Jane interjects before Charlie can say another word. Michelle can’t see her from where she’s sitting but she can hear the slightest tinge of annoyance— coated with a charm that Michelle can easily see through, if only because of how often she’s used this exact tactic.

Charlie looks flustered but his own embarrassment of being called out seems to win out, nodding once to the two of them before walking back to the front of the bus.

Michelle immediately wants to thank Mary Jane for her intervention, even if she probably shouldn’t — considering who Mary Jane was with and that her presence was the whole reason Peter was even along for the trip.

But whatever she had expected when Harry had mentioned bringing a “Mary Jane”, the real Mary Jane was incomparable. 

A red-head with sparkling green eyes and an infectious laugh, Mary Jane Watson immediately seemed too good for Harry and in Michelle’s eyes, Mary Jane knew it too. 

It’d been undeniably awkward when her and Peter walked up, Harry stopping in mid-sentence and his eyes almost bulging out when he realized just who Michelle’s plus one for the trip was going to be. But Mary Jane immediately swooped in, not just to save Harry from any embarrassment but immediately to cut through any tension and introduce herself to Michelle and to Peter — all while studying the two of them in a way that made Michelle immediately feel seen.

Whatever Mary Jane had found when she looked at the two of them, she’d easily redirected the conversation - and Harry - to some other final prep before they all boarded the bus.

For the second time in one day, Mary Jane had saved the two of them. Michelle may have brought Peter along as part of a childish scheme better left in a rom com - something Michelle already vaguely regrets - but at least Mary Jane wasn’t playing whatever game Charlie had planned.

Peter gets out his phone as Michelle busies herself with the peanuts, only for her own phone to buzz in her pocket. Michelle puts the peanuts down in her lap, digging her phone out and making a face when she sees who it is.

 **Peter** : Nice save huh?

Michelle glances to him but Peter’s tacitly ignoring her, looking out the window of the bus with interest. Michelle could laugh at how obvious he’s being, holding back a smirk as she quickly types out a reply.

 **MJ:** Mary Jane saves the day 

She side glances to Peter who not so discreetly checks his phone, his facial expressions making her want to laugh even more considering he looked like he was reading state secrets as he sends her a text back.

 **Peter** : she won’t always be able to. We should really get our story together, just in case.

 **MJ** : what story?

 **Peter** : of how we got together? Like am I actually pretending to be your boyfriend or is this just something new? How did it happen? Who kissed first and how did you feel when it was me?

Michelle snorts, biting her lips as she pointedly ignores Peter, seeing his grin out of the corner of her eye as she responds. 

**MJ:** it’s new. we don’t need a specific timeline, except it was AFTER Harry and I broke up obviously 

**Peter:** obviously 

**MJ:** and idk. I had a big crush on you in high school. we’ll just say you did too and go from there. 

Peter freezes next to her, enough that Michelle can’t help but look back at him only to see an unreadable expression on his face— a feat in and of itself considering how well Michelle prided herself on _getting_ people, much less Peter Parker.

Michelle nudged at him with her elbow, Peter finally looking over to her as she asks, “You okay?”

“You did?” He asks, Michelle furrowing her eyebrows in confusion only for them to smoothen out when he waves the phone in his hand.

“Yeah,” Michelle says, confused and scrambling now to wonder how she’d never admitted that before, “I thought Harry told you.”

Peter presses his lips together, twisting them together before saying, “No, he didn’t.”

“Oh.”

Michelle feels an awkwardness she absolutely shouldn’t. Her crush on Peter was over a decade old by now and long gone. She wasn’t that shy little sixteen-year old who would bet money that Peter was Spider-Man. She was a twenty-eight year old _lawyer_ , who could probably prove in court that Peter was Spider-Man and better— was actually his friend. 

The awkwardness is alleviated and replaced with something else she can’t quite name when Peter finally says, “I just mean, I— uh, I thought he told you that _I_ had a crush on you.”

Michelle leans back, searching his face before asking, “Wait, you did?”

Peter makes a face as if Michelle had made a big joke, laughing under his breath as he says, “Yeah, it was— you remember junior year? After the Blip?”

“Yeah…”

“We were all supposed to go on that trip to Europe that summer but then it got cancelled and then M—“ Peter cuts himself off, glancing around the bus and realizing that they’re still surrounded by people. He looks back to his phone, typing out a text that Michelle immediately waits for on her own phone.

 **Peter** : Mysterio showed up in New York instead and I got distracted. By the time senior year started, you were always talking about leaving for college and I was just… 

He sends a gif of Spongebob running around screaming, one that makes her laugh before looking back at him and seeing the same indecipherable expression on his face.

“Well looks like we got our story down,” Michelle says in a tone that’s meant to be helpful but only sounds a little breathless.

“Yep,” Peter says, holding her gaze for a beat too long— long enough that it stirs up a feeling in her gut that she hasn’t felt a long time when it comes to Peter Parker. 

A bump in the road breaks the spell between them, Michelle grabbing at the peanuts before they fall to the ground.

“Thanks. For these,” she says as a segue to changing the conversation, Peter seeing the moment being gone just as well as Michelle does as he nods.

“Yeah, yeah of course.”

Michelle finally gets back to opening them when Peter digs in his backpack for something, popping a peanut in her mouth only for Peter to gesture some kind of cord to her.

She looks at it then looks back at Peter who has a hopeful expression on his face.

“I got a dual adapter. Want to watch a documentary or something? I got some saved on my phone. For the trip.”

Michelle feels that same flutter again in her stomach, chewing a few times before swallowing down the peanut and feelings she absolutely shouldn’t have as she nods and says, “Yeah. Sounds good.”

* * *

The drive to Belleayre passes quickly after that, Michelle only barely paying attention to the movie playing on Peter’s half-cracked phone screen. 

She can’t help but focus on Peter’s admission that he had liked her back in high school - something that for as much as she watched him back then she never got a hint of - and the idea that _Harry_ had somehow known this and hadn’t said a word.

 _No wonder he was jealous_ , Michelle thinks to herself as they get off the bus— Harry looking at her and Peter before laughably turning away. 

It shouldn’t have mattered— Michelle had been dating Harry for two years before they all met up in that bar again. But it must be a punch in the gut to see the two of them now, the penny finally dropping when she realizes Peter’s involvement in the whole thing.

She scoffs, Peter turning to her as she shakes her head as the rest of the group unloads from the bus.

“What?”

“You _knew_. That’s why you agreed to come,” Michelle says, Peter tilting his head in confusion as Michelle continues. “Peter Parker, you’re just as petty as I am.”

Peter immediately catches on, going to explain before Michelle says, “I knew this was a stupid idea, especially if you were so gung ho about it.”

“Hey—“

“But at least you got a _free vacation_ ,” Michelle jokes, Peter frowning before realizing that Michelle’s not actually upset.

She could be— but it would be pointless. It’s not as if she wasn’t originally going to blatantly “use” Peter to show up Harry. If Peter wanted to prove something, be it between them as old college friends or some weird payback because of Oscorp’s public criticisms of Spider-Man, than Michelle wasn’t going to throw stones at him, not when she was living in a glass house of her own making.

“Yeah,” Peter says with a grin, nodding towards the mountains in the distance, “it’s not every day you get a view like this.”

Michelle takes it in just as Peter does, letting people pass them until they’re one of the few left. It goes without saying that she wants now to avoid Harry, knowing what she does now— inexplicably feeling a level of guilt that she shouldn’t that she had brought the one person with her that would bother him the most, in several ways.

She pushes that aside, just as she pushes away the knowledge that Peter knew exactly what he was doing when he accepted - turning to him and saying, “Ready for go in?”

Peter’s grin widens, motioning his arm to gesture to the front as the two of them walk into the resort.

Harry ignores them as the room assignments are handed out, Michelle getting their keys from the front desk and catching Mary Jane’s eyes as she does.

Mary Jane smiles at her, a genuine one that Michelle instinctually trusts as she smiles back - only for her stomach to twist into knots when Harry looks at her.

She turns her head to avoid getting caught, Peter falling in step with her as they walk towards where they’re going to stay. 

It’s not till they’re in their room for the weekend that Michelle begins to question the plan.

In years past at Belleayre, Michelle had never really considered her lodgings because she never had to— forgoing a room to herself to stay with Harry.

It shouldn’t surprise her when they walk into the room and find that there’s only one bed— the whole point of bringing a plus one being exclusive to partners per Oscorp policy.

But now with the knowledge of Peter’s own teenage crush on her and feelings that she hasn’t dealt with in years, she’s not sure just how much she had thought this through. 

“I can sleep on the floor,” Peter offers, gesturing to it as Michelle’s eyes drift from the bed then back to Peter.

“It’s fine. We’re adults,” Michelle says, ignoring Peter’s stare as she sets her carryon down. She turns back to him, seeing the trepidation in his face and the way his fingers trill together in a nervous tic as she says, “Besides, isn’t the whole point to pretend that we’re together?”

“Well yeah, but it’s not like—“ Peter goes to say, only for the door of their room to swing wide open— Charlie fucking Weiderman showing up again like a damn ghost of Christmas present. 

“Hey guys, all settled in?” He asks, suggestively waving his eyebrows before looking to Peter in confusion.

“You sleeping on the floor man? Trouble in paradise already?”

Peter looks down to where he set his backpack down before laughing, folding his arms together and saying, “No, just didn’t feel right putting this ratty piece of shit on the nice furniture.”

Charlie hums like he doesn’t believe him, Michelle going to say something only for Charlie to cut her off.

“Smart man. Well, I won’t keep you lovebirds any longer.”

He has the audacity to wink before walking away, leaving the door open and furthering Michelle’s annoyance as she walks up to it and closes it - locking it for good measure.

“He’s annoying,” Peter says, Michelle exhaling out a huff.

“He’s a pain in the ass but he’s right,” Michelle says, looking back to Peter. “If we’re gonna sell this thing, we gotta go for it.”

“I thought you said it was stupid.”

“It _is_ stupid,” Michelle conceded, frustrated with herself and her stupid, competitive impulses as she rubs her forehead, “but we’re here now. Besides,” she says as she brings her hand down, “it’s not like you’re clearly not gonna benefit from this too.”

Peter had the decency not to argue with her, confirming that she’s right and his acceptance of this batshit plan wasn’t just for a free vacation or to “help her out”. 

Whatever happened between Peter and Harry wasn’t any of her business, even if she was desperately curious to find out just what happened between Spider-Man and Norman Osborn. 

Peter had his reasons, just as she did - the one goal they had now in passing off their new relationship as real and hopefully, enjoying a vacation on Oscorp’s dime. 

“So just, pretend you like me or whatever,” Michelle finally says, exhaling out of her mouth before putting her hands on her hips. 

Peter lets out a laugh, scratching the back of his neck before saying, “Well that’ll be easy. I _do_ like you.”

Michelle rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Peter takes a beat, holding her gaze for a moment— enough for Michelle’s stomach to do a weird little flip before he finally says, “Yeah, I do.”

He looks almost sad as he says it before mumbling something about checking out the bathroom.

As he does, Michelle can’t help but think she missed something - focusing her attention on unpacking and not on feelings she hasn’t thought of in years. 


	3. Leave It All Behind

Michelle steps out of the bathroom, ready to head out to whatever “company bonding activity” Oscorp has planned when she sees Peter awkwardly standing by the door. 

“What?” Michelle asks, Peter looking a little uncomfortable as he shifts his weight back and forth.

“I um, just wanted to make sure that we’re good.”

Michelle blinks at him, squinting slightly before asking, “Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?”

Peter looks a little frazzled, something Michelle doesn’t quite understand as he takes his phone out - waving it slightly before saying, “I mean, because of everything.”

Michelle just stares at him, confused to why Peter’s acting so funny as he swallows.

“You know, it’s uh— it’s not a big deal. It’s— sorry, just tired. Long hours at the Bugle, you know.”

“Okay…” Michelle says, now instantly curious for what could have set Peter off. Peter for his part now looks as if he’s swallowed a nail, forcing a smile as he opens the door.

“You ready?”

Michelle nods, eyeing him up and down as they exit the room - Peter closing and locking the door behind him as Michelle slips her phone out of her pocket.

She’s confused for a half-beat, scanning their prior messages to see if Peter had texted her anything new only for the penny to drop when she realizes why Peter was likely acting so skittish now.

 **Peter** : Mysterio showed up in New York instead and I got distracted. By the time senior year started, you were always talking about leaving for college and I was just… 

It’s an innocuous enough message, except Michelle 

knows _exactly_ why Peter was acting so weird now. 

Mysterio causing havoc in New York was a pain in the ass for everyone that summer, some theater school dropout who used illusions to wreak havoc for the people of New York - much less Spider-Man - causing just as much headaches as the rest of the C-grade villains who showed up.

Peter might work at the Bugle now and can reasonably use his gig as a photographer for why he shows up for Spider-Man problems, but he didn’t back in high school - the low grade panic emanating off of Peter making that much more sense as they make their way back to the lobby.

Michelle knows Peter is Spider-Man, but Peter doesn’t know that— only to now clearly be worrying about having inadvertently spilled a secret that hasn’t been a secret to her since they were fifteen.

Before she can think to pull him aside and put him out of misery - one less secret between them than the apparent crush he had on her and never said - Jeanine calls out to her, multiple heads turning as she yells.

“MICHELLE! It’s time for a picture!”

Michelle instantly winces from the attention and from how loud Jeanine is, waving to her as they make their way down the stairs and towards the group that’s gathered.

“Just the Oscorp family for now, then we’ll all get together,” Jeanine says with a cheerfulness that can’t possibly be real - Michelle crowding around some of the people from accounting as she shoots Peter a look.

Peter’s nerves have seemingly lifted from the absurdity of the moment, only to tense when Harry comes up beside him.

Michelle watches in earnest as the two of them share a few words, Bobby from accounting moving in front of her before she can catch it. 

By the time Bobby’s moved out of the way, Peter’s lips are pinched together and Harry looks annoyed - transforming his features into a cool smile before launching into his yearly welcome speech to the event. 

Michelle’s not paying attention, looking back to Peter who holds her gaze.

She can’t read the expression on his face, an unfamiliar feeling creeping in the back of her spine as he stares at her - only for the call for the picture to bring her attention back to Jeanine.

It takes much longer than it should for her to be happy with “documenting their memories” but Michelle’s mind is elsewhere, curious to know just what Harry and Peter said to each other. 

In the year since they all “reconnected”, it was clear that whatever friendship they had built from taking classes together at ESU wasn’t strong enough now - not just because of the knowledge of their seemingly unknown but mutual crushes on each other but of Peter’s continued gig at the Bugle, taking pictures of Spider-Man.

Michelle knew that Harry had it out for Spider-Man, for reasons she hadn’t pressed him about, even if the way he talked about him gave her every indication that he _didn’t_ know that he was Peter. Yet Harry still held a grudge against Peter, for taking pictures of the hero and seemingly always being present during major events - save for the night that Spider-Man had failed to save Norman Osborn.

Michelle can feel the headache threatening to build behind her eyes, wondering just how stupid this whole idea was in the first place when the picture is finally taken and the crowd begins to disperse.

“Wait! Now with everyone!” Jeanine exclaims, the crowd muttering and growing restless. Jeanine looks put out, like she’s going to insist only for Mary Jane to step in and take the spotlight - easily projecting out to the crowd as she smiles.

“How about we all have a good time and take some natural pictures? That’s what you want it for right? Good memories for the company website?”

Jeanine looks enthralled by Mary Jane, a feeling that Michelle gets for his immediately captivating she is - Mary Jane smiling before looking out to them.

“Well, you heard the lady. Go out and have some fun!” 

The crowd listens, something of a feat in and of itself considering how Type A most of the Oscorp crowd could be. 

Before Mary Jane can disappear again, Michelle walks forward - debating what exactly she wants to say as Jeanine walks off, only for Mary Jane to turn towards her with a radiant smile.

“Michelle right?” 

“Yeah,” Michelle says, nodding her head towards where Jeanine is now - thumbing through the pictures she’s taken on her phone, “thanks for that.”

Mary Jane’s smile somehow grows wider, waving a perfectly manicured hand in the air as she says, “That’s not a problem. People just need a little push in the right direction sometimes.”

Michelle doesn’t quite know how to answer that, just as Mary Jane’s attention shifts off to Michelle’s side as she says, “Speaking of right directions…”

Peter walks up to the two of them then, Mary Jane’s eyes almost sparkling as she looks between the two of them. 

“I’ve heard so much about you two from Harry,” Mary Jane says lightly, Peter stiffening slightly as Michelle braces herself - guessing that whatever Harry had to say couldn’t possibly be very kind. 

Mary Jane proves herself to be too good for Harry yet again when she playfully rolls her eyes, shaking her head as if the three of them were in on an inside joke and says, “But I can already tell that I’ll have to take what _he_ says with a grain of salt.”

Mary Jane winks then, throwing her long red hair over her shoulders as she says, “I wondered why Harry was so adamant about bringing me on this trip. We’ve only been on like three dates.”

Michelle has a good enough poker face to keep her surprise in check but Peter clearly can’t, a stunning representation of how more people didn’t know his secret identity as he sputters out, “Really?”

Mary Jane laughs, the sound loud and clear and almost ringing as she says, “Wouldn’t have picked the company holiday retreat as a fourth but what’s a girl to say to an all-exclusive ski resort vacation? No?” 

Mary Jane’s eyes gleam, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively at Michelle as she says, “Especially when the only one who pays is the rich snob with a point to prove.”

Michelle is flabbergasted, wondering if she possibly heard Mary Jane right when Mary Jean leans in and whispers, “I don’t know what Harry or that idiot Charlie have planned but I’m not involved.”

Mary Jane leans back, winking at Peter before smiling at the two of them as she says, “I’m just a girl looking for a good time on someone else’s dime.”

Even as she says the words, Michelle can sense the lie in them - not that Mary Jane had ulterior motives in the slightest but that her affectation was just that, a front to distract people. Michelle is immediately intrigued by Mary Jane but also inexplicably trusts her - a gut feeling that Mary Jane is telling the truth.

“Harry’s got a lot of those,” Peter bounces back with a smoothness that surprised Michelle, only to belatedly remember that when he wasn’t Peter Parker, he spent his nights wise cracking as Spider-Man.

Mary Jane smiles at that, clicking her tongue and shooting a finger gun in his direction. “And that is exactly the point. Now,” she clasps her hands together in front of her, rubbing them for effect, “I have a date with the spa in thirty minutes. Harry and Charlie are planning on taking a group out to the slopes.”

She eyes then both carefully before saying, “But that’s supposed to be a surprise. It’d be a shame if you two were already out doing something else, before they announced it.”

Michelle takes the hint, just as Peter does - Mary Jane winking at them once more.

“See you around.”

Mary Jane walks off with a swing in her step, Michelle feeling just as mesmerized as Jeanine did only to catch herself just as Peter does.

He looks back to Michelle, a wry smile on his face before he asks, “What just happened?”

“I have no idea,” Michelle says, watching as Mary Jane walks with purpose towards what she can only imagine is the direction towards the spa before turning back to Peter, “but I’m not gonna question it. If she says Harry’s trying to surprise us with something…”

“Then we should get busy,” Peter finishes, only for his cheeks to flush as he continues, “with an activity. Here, at the resort.”

Michelle holds back a smirk, biting her lip before nodding and saying, “Yeah, let’s get busy then.”

Peter sighs, closing his eyes in exasperation. “You’re not gonna let me live that down are you?”

“Not a chance,” Michelle says breezily, laughing as she walks past Peter towards the service desk - Peter following right behind her.

* * *

“When I said an activity, I meant something like a puzzle or a movie or something.”

“It’s a ski resort, Peter. What did you think we were gonna do?” Michelle laughs as she skates alongside Peter whose legs are ramrod straight as he putters along, holiday music playing over the speakers of the resort’s outside ice rink.

The front desk said they had a number of ice rinks, both inside and outside because of course they did. Michelle chose this one specifically because of its distance away from the main cabin as well as the size of it being relatively small, guessing that Peter would have less of a chance to show off with his spider powers if there were less people around.

What Michelle hadn’t expected was for Peter to be so abysmally terrible on the ice - something that she desperately wants to call him out on but hasn’t figured out how to. 

“Have you never skated before?” Michelle asks, slowing her stride to match Peter’s glacier pace - Peter’s hand flailing about as he looks as if he’s going to fall, only to steady himself as Michelle grabs his arm.

“Once or twice,” Peter says, eyes wide and darting across the ice so comically that it makes Michelle want to laugh, “Ned tried to get me to go a couple of times, back in high school.”

“I guess he wasn’t that successful,” Michelle snickers to herself, letting go of Peter’s arm as he glares at her.

“Ice sports aren’t really my thing.”

“I’d hardly call inching around Rockefeller Center a _sport_. Toddlers are moving faster than you right now. Look, there goes one now,” Michelle says, gesturing to a kid that can’t be more than four years old - skating with no less finesse but with a lot more bravery than Peter is at the moment.

“I still think we could’ve just watched a movie,” Peter grumbles, the two of them moving forward so slowly that Michelle thinks she might fall from the lack of movement anyway.

“And risk Charlie finding us? Hell no. Mary Jane gave us an out, I’m glad we took it.”

“She’s something else huh?” Peter asks, Michelle looking back at him and seeing the amused expression on his face.

“Something else is right. I don’t know what Harry or even Charlie thought he was going to do in bringing her here but it’s clear Mary Jane’s not having it.”

Peter shrugs, moving his legs with a little more power to them as they skate. “Works for us. Especially since you said this was a stupid plan anyway. Which… what exactly is our plan here?”

Michelle doesn’t really have an answer for him, pursing her lips together as she skates forward. It wasn’t as if she truly wanted to “prove” anything to Harry, especially since Mary Jane seemed just as disinterested in being a pawn in whatever game Harry had planned. If she went forward and tried to make something more of what her and Peter were like they had originally planned, she would look like the pathetic one - something Michelle absolutely does not plan on doing anytime soon.

Yet the knowledge that Peter had a crush on her back in high school and that Harry knew about it comes back to her then, something so minor that it shouldn’t really take up as much brain space as it is. But it does, if only because it’s clear from Peter’s reaction to her telling about her crush on _him_ that Harry had never said a word. 

It doesn’t matter, not when that information was shared when she and Harry were dating and headed towards a one way track to the altar.

The fact that they weren’t now and that Michelle _knew_ Harry had been hiding this from her - just as he clearly had hid it from Peter - bothered her more than it probably should. 

“MJ?” Peter asks, throwing her out of her thoughts.

She looks to him, wondering for a half-second that if she should ask him about it only for a kid to rush past them and nudge her shoulder - causing time to move in slow motion.

Considering what she’s seen on YouTube of Spider-Man’s shenanigans, Peter’s sense of balance should remain solid no matter what. But the ice seems to be the one surface Spider-Man can’t stick to, Michelle being pushed right into Peter and Peter - already unsteady on his feet - to grab hold of her as they go tumbling down on the ice.

Michelle’s knee hits the ice, Peter protectively bracing his hands over her as they fall. She immediately winces, Peter looking dazed as he blinks back at her. 

“Are you okay?” He asks, sounding a little breathless. Michelle immediately chalks it up to the sudden change in gravity, inches away from his face as she says, “Yeah, are you?”

“Yeah,” Peter says, eyes locking onto hers. His cheeks are flushed and his lips are a little chapped from the cold, but Michelle feels a warmth blossoming in the pit of her stomach - realizing that she’s still on top of him a beat too long as she scrambles to help him up.

“First off, no more ice skating,” Michelle says, leaning back on her knees as Peter sits up.

“Solid plan,” he says with a huff, the two of them awkwardly moving into a stand until they’re both holding each other’s arms— faces still inches from each other, Peter looking as if he wants to ask her something. 

“Are you guys okay?” A voice calls out, Peter and Michelle turning to see the presumed parent of the kid who had accidentally knocked them down.

“Yeah, yeah fine. Thanks,” Peter says with a wave, Michelle huffing out a laugh as the kid gets dragged away by his dad to an equally upset looking man that she can guess is his other dad. 

But when she looks back to Peter, expecting him to change the subject as they find some other winter activity to do, she’s thrown off by the intensity of his expression.

Peter searches her face for a beat before seemingly deciding something with himself, finally releasing her from his grip as he asks, “Can uh, can we talk?”

Instinctually, Michelle wants to crack a joke - slide back into the easy banter that they’ve built up from a year of being in each other’s lives again. But there’s something in his look that stops her, a flutter in her stomach that reminds her all too much of chemistry class and quiet cafeteria lunches and failed field trips - nodding once before saying, “Yeah, I think we should.”

The corner of Peter’s lips turn up, extending out his hand - Michelle looking at it for a beat before looking back into his eyes as he says, “For balance. So I don’t fall again.”

Michelle rolls her eyes, slipping her hand into his as she says, “Sure, for _balance_.”

It was a line, painfully cheesy and for anyone else - would’ve called them out on it. 

But Michelle doesn’t, feeling an unexplainable thrill as Peter’s hands intertwine with hers, Peter squeezing her hand gently as they skate towards the edge of the rink together. 


	4. Haunted By the Look in My Eyes

Michelle feels like her heart is going to beat outside of her chest for how fast it’s racing, the warmth she feels radiating from Peter’s hand in hers sending a shot of electricity through her. It was patently ridiculous, she’d held Peter’s hand before as they made their way through crowded flea markets and sweaty and gross subways but something about holding his hand here-- now, at a snowy resort after he’d looked at her like he never had before-- makes Michelle wonder if there was something a little stronger in the cocoa.

Peter’s grip is firm and steady in her hand as they make their way to the edge of the rink, Peter finally stopping and turning to her. Some of his hair has crept outside of his beanie, smiling at her with flushed cheeks and a smile that’s so radiant it’s like something out of a romance novel.

Yet before either of them can say another word, Michelle sees the moment come crashing down to earth when she hears the same irritating voice that feels like the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard call out.

“ _MJ_ , there you are!” Charlie fucking Weiderman calls out, Michelle fuming and frustrated that he’d somehow found them considering Mary Jane had explicitly told them he and Harry were taking the rest of the team out on the slopes. 

Michelle barely gets the chance to fake a smile, Peter reassuringly squeezing her hand as Charlie trudges through the snow and runs towards them.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Michelle asks through gritted teeth, Peter just barely shrugging as Charlie comes up to the two of them. 

"I’ve been looking for you guys forever. Harry took the rest of the team out but I knew,” Charlie wags his fingers between the two of them, “I knew you guys were still around.”

“You found us,” Peter deadpans, Michelle squeezing his hand as she stifles back a smirk.

“I did,” Charlie says, completely oblivious and looking inordinately pleased with himself. He glances down to where their hands are joined, smiling before looking back up at them. “And it looks like you two are doing great.”

“Yep,” Michelle says, “Trying to enjoy this capitalististic sponsored bonding time like Harry said to.”

Charlie’s smile turns thin, his eye twitching slightly as he looks at her, Peter then back to Michelle again. It makes Michelle laugh how much Charlie is baffled at the two of them, Mary Jane’s words that he was planning something coming back to mind-- only to wonder now if it had all been for nothing considering how solid the two of them appeared.

“Right. Well, you missed the slopes but there’s still a team of us who are going to do some puzzles in the main foyer. Team bonding and all that.”

“Do you even work at Oscorp?” Peter asks, Michelle actually letting out a laugh that she tries and fails to make it seem as if it was a cough as Charlie’s smile looks tighter.

“I’m an essential part of Harry’s development plan to refocus on collaboration and interpersonal dynamics,” Charlie says, Michelle thinking that if looks could kill that Peter would be dead on the spot. Not that Peter’s bothered, Michelle thinks with a laugh-- considering the _actual_ super villain bullshit he deals with on a daily basis.

But Charlie doesn’t know that, just as Michelle isn’t supposed to, Peter just smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world as he says, “Oh right. Sure.”

Charlie looks completely baffled at Peter, Michelle wondering for a beat just what Harry had told him about Peter before he recovers and says, “Anyway, we should get going. Get you guys out of the cold and those skates.”

Michelle doesn’t want to but has a sneaking suspicion that trying to get out of it would only lead to something much larger and much worse in the future from the look in Charlie’s eye, faking her smile even more as she says, “Lead the way.”

Charlie’s smile becomes overbearing then as he starts to chatter about something completely inane that Michelle immediately tunes out. She follows after him though, Peter right beside her-- hands still intertwined.

As they make their way to the cabin, he gently squeezes her hand-- a gentle and affirming presence that reminds her that even if Charlie had some kind of plan that she wasn’t alone in figuring it out.

It makes Michelle think that no matter what this weekend was supposed to have in store, as long as she had Peter by her side-- then she could face anything.

* * *

Michelle was beginning to question that thought process five hours later, halfway through a stuffy and exhaustingly boring dinner in one of the main dining rooms of the lodge they were staying in.

Namely because Peter _wasn’t_ by her side, having been pulled aside by Harry and now sitting at the edge of the table looking uncomfortable and tense as Charlie, Harry and some of the other C-suit executives talked about an upcoming merger. 

She knew enough of Peter’s views about finances that it was complicated at best. Despite him growing up with a limited income even when his uncle was alive, he’d been mentored by _Tony Stark_ for the better half of a decade-- the only strain between the two of them being Peter’s patent refusal to accept any kind of money or financial benefits aside from the use of tech in his suits. 

At least, that’s what Michelle could guess if the reddit threads and gossip sites had any weight considering Michelle wasn’t even supposed to know that his internship with Tony Stark in high school had manifested into anything significant-- not when Peter outwardly worked with Dr. Octavius in an underfunded lab outside of Harlem.

It hits at something again in her that Peter still hadn’t shared this massive secret with her, especially with the memory of how he’d looked at her earlier that day on the ice rink. It was ridiculous for her to think that Peter would be brave enough to share that he might have feelings for her when he hadn’t had the guts to share something that was arguably much more terrifying to reveal. 

“Honey if you don’t like the green beans, you know you don’t have to eat them,” a familiar voice says, breaking her out of her thoughts as Mary Jane slides into the seat next to her. 

Michelle’s surprised, if only because the person who was originally sitting there was some stuffy investor’s wife-- catching now that the two of them have traded places from the other side of the table.

Michelle looks down to her plate where she’s been moving the same green bean over and back again only to smile at Mary Jane, setting the fork down and saying, “Yeah, not my favorite to be honest.”

“Mine either,” Mary Jane says with a sigh, signaling for one of the waiters to bring over some more wine. She thanks them after they pour into her glass, smiling back at Michelle as she says, “If I’m gonna waste my calories on something, might as well enjoy it.”

Michelle smirks, Mary Jane taking a long sip of her drink before nodding towards where Harry, Peter and Charlie were sitting. 

"How come you two aren’t sitting together? Did that idiot Charlie have something to do with it?”

Michelle laughs, putting a hand over her mouth and glancing around only to be glad that everyone else was too deep in conversation to notice, looking back at Mary Jane as she says, “Harry, actually.”

Mary Jane rolls her eyes, crossing her legs and setting her drink down on the table as she says, “This was Charlie’s doing, mark my words.” 

“Do you know him?” Michelle asks politely, if not in a little confusion since from everything she’s picked up-- her and Harry hadn’t been dating that long of a time. 

Then again Michelle thinks as Mary Jane rolls her eyes, you didn’t need to be around Charlie long to already have a good picture of who he is. 

“Only through Harry but you know as well as I do that’s good enough,” she says, confirming what Michelle already knew as Mary Jane leans forward.

"I don’t know what that idiot has planned. I’ve tried but Harry’s been,” Mary Jane says as she waves her hand around, “whatever. I do know that it’s clear he wanted us to fight or some other kind of reductive nonsense better left in the fifties.” 

Michelle smiles, leaning forward conspiratorially. “Sounds about right for someone who thinks a corporate retreat would actually be an ‘exciting time to build connections’.” 

Mary Jane laughs then, the sound loud and clear and just as it’s been every single time she’s heard it-- loud enough this time that several heads turn their way.

“I knew I liked you,” Mary Jane says as she picks up her wine glass, Michelle bringing up her own and clinking her drink together with Mary Jane’s. “Us girls gotta look out for each other.”

“Definitely,” Michelle says with a smile before taking a drink, only to get the feeling that she’s being stared at. She looks in that direction, seeing both Harry and Peter staring at her-- Charlie still deep in some conversation that looked like it was boring the same people he was trying to impress.

It struck Michelle, the contrast between the two-- Harry looking at her in confusion and almost annoyance, something it was clear he was struggling not to and Peter almost wistful-- a smile on his face that sends a shiver down her spine.

There had to be something in the food, the air, the wine-- something that can account for why Peter looking at her is setting off such a physical reaction to her in a way it hasn’t before. 

“Looks like someone else is looking out for you too,” Mary Jane says demurely, Michelle looking back to her to see the mischievous smile on her face.

Michelle steals a glance back at Peter, only for something in her chest to warm when she realizes he hasn’t stopped staring at her as she says, “Yeah. Looks like I do.” 

* * *

The rest of the dinner thankfully passes off without a hitch, Mary Jane sitting by her for the remainder of it and regaling her with a near endless amount of stories and gossip about her life and her work. It doesn’t surprise Michelle in the slightest to hear that she’s an actress or that she’s worked on Broadway, a part of Michelle thinking that it was only a matter of time before she made it big and she’d be able to say she knew Mary Jane when.

It also confirms for her that Harry was reaching _far_ beyond his league, getting the distinct impression that even if it hadn’t been for whatever scheme he and Charlie had cooked up this weekend, Mary Jane wouldn’t have been the type to settle for someone like Harry.

Mary Jane once again makes good on her promise to look out for her, quickly distracting Charlie from making a beeline towards her just as Peter appears by her side-- nodding towards their room as they excuse themselves for the night.

Michelle feels like she can finally breathe when they finally make it back to their room, sitting on the bed and looking at Peter before they burst out laughing.

“God, that was awful,” Peter finally says, leaning back against the door and wiping a hand across his face.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” Michelle says with a laugh, slipping off her shoes and kicking them to the side. “We knew they were gonna try and do something.”

“I guess but damn, Charlie Weiderman does not know how to shut up,” Peter says with a grimace, Michelle laughing as Peter smiles back at her.

“Well,” Michelle says, smoothing out her dress and sitting up, “I’m gonna shower and try and get the smell of cigar smoke out of my dress.”

Peter smiles, going to say something when Michelle stands and turns her back towards him. “Can you unzip me?”

Michelle knows the request is casual and expected because they were supposed to be pretending to be dating, but there’s an undeniable shift in the air from saying as much-- hearing Peter’s sharp inhale as he mutters, “yeah, of course.”

He walks up behind her, Michelle’s heartbeat starting to race just as fast as it did back on the ice rink as he gently brushes her hair away and slides the zipper down-- feeling his breath against her neck as it sends a shiver down her spine.

“Thanks,” Michelle says in a whisper, turning back to him and seeing the same look in his eyes that she saw before. “For everything. Not just the dress.”

“You’re welcome,” Peter says, swallowing down something in his throat as he searches her face. 

“MJ, I--”

“I should shower,” Michelle says, any confidence that she felt from before dwindling now at the reality of where the two of them were-- in a private room and about to share a bed for the first time, a part of Michelle cursing at herself for chickening out and acting more like the awkward sixteen year old she’d been when she first had a crush on Peter.

“Oh, right. Yeah,” Peter says, taking a step back and letting some air pass between them. It’s not enough to cut through the tension that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere but it’s enough to give Michelle the chance to breathe, to think more about what she’s doing as she mutters something under her breath and grabs her toiletries before walking to the ensuite bathroom.

It’s not till she’s finished with her shower, brushing her teeth and staring at herself in the mirror that she curses herself for being so much of a coward. 

Yet as she gathers her things, side-stepping out of the bathroom as Peter walks in without a word to shower and get ready for bed, she can’t help but think that it’s not just cowardice but hurt-- hurt that even if Peter had feelings for her, that those feelings couldn’t possibly be that strong if he still hadn’t shared that he was Spider-Man.

Michelle hadn’t told anyone his secret or had ever let on that she knew, committed that if someone wanted to share things about their life that they would do so without having to be prompted. 

She’s so lost in thought when Peter comes out of the bathroom that it takes a minute before she sees Peter standing awkwardly on the other side of the bed-- sweatpants on and a t-shirt that doesn’t seem like it was meant for sleep. 

“Can I…?” He asks, gesturing towards the open space that she’d left out for him.

“Yeah,” Michelle says, opening up the covers as Peter quietly slips into them-- Michelle scooting down and staring up at the ceiling before looking back at him.

“You okay?” He asks quietly, Michelle intimately aware of how close he is to her in that moment and how little clothing there is to between them.

“I’m fine,” Michelle says quickly, bundling the covers up to her chin as she says, “It’s just cold.”

“Oh,” Peter says, only for a smile to crack alongside his face even in the dark. “Well, you know they do say the best way to get warm is to huddle together.”

“Oh do they now?” Michelle says with a smile, Peter grinning at her before his eyes soften. 

Michelle can see a dozen different things look over his eyes as he stares at her, a warmth building in her gut at the vulnerability and the desire she sees in his eyes. 

There’s a dozen things that pass through her own mind-- the secret that she’s known about him for years, the glances and little moments that they’ve shared this weekend and the past year, even Mary Jane’s knowing smile over at dinner-- motivating her to be braver than she’d been earlier that night as she leans forward and whispers, “I can think of something else that can keep us warm.”

“Oh yeah?” Peter says under his breath, eyes still steadily trained on her.

“Yeah,” Michelle replies, eyes half-lidded as she leans forward even more-- Peter closing the distance between them as his lips meet hers. Michelle breathes into the kiss, one that Peter immediately takes to-- strong arms pulling her even closer until she’s pressed up against him. Michelle gasps into his mouth, rifling one hand through his hair and then another through shirt-- a burning desire to be closer.

Peter responds in kind, shifting their position till he’s over her-- grinding down against her slowly as Michelle moans into his mouth, Peter’s hands moving down to ghost over her chest.

“Is this okay?” He asks, Michelle almost wanting to laugh that he's still asking for consent when she’d been the one to kiss him first.

“Yeah,” Michelle says against his mouth, only to throw her head back when Peter’s lips move to her neck, his hands and his thumbs working over her breast as she gasps.

“I uh, I didn’t bring anything,” Michelle says, cursing her lack of preparation even if rationally she had no real reason to do so. She wasn’t a horny college student anymore, carrying condoms around like they were candy and even if her and Peter were supposed to pretend be dating-- it wasn’t as if she’d really expected _this_ to be a part of the deal. 

Peter lifts his head up, staring into her eyes as he says, “I didn’t either but uh… I can think of another way to keep you warm.”

The hand that was working her breast moves downwards, Michelle inhaling sharply as he runs a thumb over her center-- already embarrassingly turned on as his eyes flutter. 

“Can’t have hypothermia,” Michelle says with a huff, Peter laughing before kissing her on the mouth-- tongue slipping into her mouth as his thumb begins to move with more pressure. 

“Can’t have that,” Peter says with a grin, going to move down when Michelle grabs at him and kisses him again, sucking on his bottom lip before she says, “I’ll keep you warm too.”

Peter smiles at her again, a look that’s full of lust and mischievous determination as he wriggles his eyebrows, “I don’t know, MJ. Might be a little tired when I’m finally finished.”

He has the audacity to wink at her before he says, "Or when _you're_ finished, I guess."

“Is that a challenge?” Michelle asks, Peter grinning at her as he leans forward, whispering against her lips.

“It’s a promise.”

Michelle laughs, only to gasp when Peter crawls down the length of her at lightning speed-- shifting the shorts she has off and burrowing his head between her legs.

Michelle’s always considered herself a person who likes to give as good as she gets, a competitive person by nature.

But as Peter’s tongue slips inside of her, gently roving his fingers over where she wants him most-- Michelle begins to wonder not for the first time if she’s severely underestimated her odds when it comes being around Peter Parker. 


	5. There is Happiness

Michelle wakes slowly to sunlight streaming across her face, shifting slightly in bed only to freeze when she registers how close the presence of the person next to her is.

She slowly blinks an eye open, only to bite her lip in amusement when she sees Peter drooling on the pillow-- completely out if it and snoring in a way that would probably be cute if she didn’t hate snoring so much.

But his mouth being open sends a shot of warmth through her at the memory of last night and how exactly that mouth moved. It was objectively either one of the bravest or one of the stupidest things she’d ever done, making a move on Peter -- even if she can’t help but think that it would only take something like _this_ to have brought them together.

An old insecurity runs through her then, a passing thought if last night was just a fluke or a result of close quarters in a weird as hell situation. Maybe not her sixteen year old self, but a younger Michelle would’ve shied away from it-- tried to play off what they did as nothing more than friends fooling around, having a good enough guess that Peter would play off her lead. 

But Michelle’s beyond that now, the memory of what Mary Jane said to her last night being proof positive that for as much as her old insecurities try and whisper that this was a mistake or a fluke, there was an undeniable truth right in front of her face. 

She had someone looking out for her, someone who had been more than a little eager to show up Harry in some way and serve as a fake boyfriend-- only to act like said boyfriend when no one was even around. 

She gently traces a hand across his bare shoulder, drawing tiny circles across the length of his arm as Peter’s mouth closes. He smacks his lips, eyes fluttering for a moment before they open and land on her -- any doubt that she had that there was something between the two of them completely eliminated from the soft look in eyes.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Michelle says, Peter’s arm moving so that he can brush a curl past her face.

“So,” Peter begins, eyes searching her face as he brings his hand down. “Last night was fun.”

“Are you warm enough yet?” Michelle asks with a grin, Peter’s cheeks blushing as he lets out a laugh - Michelle having made good on her promise to “warm him up” after he was finished with her.

Or, as the case had been, she’d finished twice.

“I don’t know,” Peter replies huskily, his expression turning serious, “Feeling a little cold now.”

“Really? Seems just fine to me,” Michelle says with a smirk, Peter leaning forward as his gaze stirs something deep in her lower belly.

“Can’t you tell?” Peter whispers, hand reaching over to her and fingers gently skimming at her waist - his fingers warm but the electricity she feels from where his fingers are trailing sending a shiver down her spine all the same. “I’m freezing.”

“You should get that checked out. Might need a doctor,” Michelle says, her voice turning a little breathless when Peter’s fingers skim over her breast, thumb gently swiping over her nipple until it hardens underneath his touch. 

“I don’t get sick,” Peter says, thumb still working her breast as Michelle leans back, Peter moving to hover over her and taking the other in his mouth. Michelle gasps as he does, closing his eyes as heat builds as Peter starts to move his tongue and this thumb with a bit more purpose. 

“That’s… that’s weird,” Michelle says with a huff, closing her eyes when Peter uses the same hand that had been working at her breast to reach down to her center-- teasingly gliding across and gathering the wetness that had already accumulated.

Peter hums across her collarbone, Michelle gasping as the fingers he’d been using to gently tease at her slowly move inside of her. 

“I’ve heard weirder,” he says against her lips, Michelle pulling him close and gasping into his mouth as his finger starts to move with more intent. 

It’s easy then, Michelle alternating between kissing him and panting in his mouth as Peter’s finger pumps one finger inside of her that quickly turns to two-- to dismiss the conversation that they’re having. It’s harmless, teasing banter but it’s also revealing, equal parts of Michelle wanting to call him out on the fact that she knows _why_ he doesn’t get sick and another part not caring about anything else but the way he curves his fingers inside of her just like _that_.

Pleasure wins out over practicality, Peter’s slick fingers and tongue working over her so well that she loses sense of time - her only focus on achieving that ephemeral sense of bliss that’s just over the edge. When she falls over, Peter groans-- rutting into her side as she snarls her hands hard into his hair.

Her chest is heaving when she finally opens her eyes, watching as Peter sucks his fingers clean before smiling down at her. She kisses him, tasting herself on his lips and then what she would late only attribute as her endorphins running wild as she says, “Weird because of Spider-Man?”

Peter completely freezes, Michelle realizing what she’d just said just a half-beat too late when he starts to stammer.

“Uh-- what-- I mean, you--”

 _Everything_ in Michelle wants to try and dismiss it, to pass it off as a joke or give him an out and reference his old high school internship. But there’s a small part of her that tells her not to, a small voice that says that if they have any chance of being something real, something _beyond_ what this weekend was supposed to be - that she should give him the chance to share his secret, even if this isn’t how she would’ve planned it.

She holds her ground, Peter’s eyes searching over her face before he looks almost resigned, shoulders sagging as he says, “You know.”

“I know,” Michelle says with a nod, sitting up slightly as Peter makes room for her. 

“How long? I-- I had no idea that you--”

“Since high school,” Michelle says, Peter’s eyes bugging out as she continues, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t-- I promised myself I wouldn’t force you to tell me but--”

“You knew,” Peter interjects, looking dumbfounded, “since _high school_ and you-- you never said anything?”

Michelle bites her lip, eyes drifting down to the bed sheet. “I thought if you wanted me to know, you’d tell me.”

When Peter doesn’t answer, she looks over to him and sees the guilt on his face, shaking her head as she said, “that’s now what I meant.”

“I…” Peter says, trailing off as he runs a hand through his hair. He looks lost, like he isn’t quite sure what to say - something that Michelle can guess what he’s thinking of having observed him all those years in high school and the year of actual friendship she had under her belt.

Spider-Man dealt with weird shit but it was also clearly _dangerous_ \- thinking back to all the long nights where she’d get a news alert of some trouble that Spider-Man was into and having to hold her tongue and not ask Peter about it. The drama that surrounded him and Harry, the nuances of everything that had gone down -- it seemed as if it was a burden that even under the best of circumstances would be too much to handle. 

Much less for someone like Peter Parker, who Michelle could wager that had she not pressed the issue - he may not have ever told her the truth.

She can’t fault him for it, if only because she’d invited him out on this weird weekend to begin with - seeing the hypocrisy of being upset with him for lying to her about his secret identity when she’d asked him to lie _for_ her on a trip with her ex-boyfriend. 

But she did feel bad about blurting this out, forcing the issue when she told herself she wouldn’t, bringing a hand to his as he looks up at her.

“We don’t have to talk about it.” 

“I-- I can’t believe you kept my secret. All these years, I…” Peter shakes his head, only for the corner of his lips to upturn as he maneuvers her hand to be in his. 

“I wanted to tell you. So many times. But you were with Harry and with everything…” Peter trails off, Michelle squeezing his hand gently as he continues, “I’m sorry.”

“ _I’m_ sorry,” Michelle says, Peter looking confused for a moment as she says, “I shouldn’t have put you on the spot.”

“No I’m glad you did,” Peter says more definitively, thumb grazing over her hand as he says, “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything.”

He smiles, Michelle taking that as a forgiveness that she’s not even sure she really needs to ask for as he says, “Thank you, MJ.”

“Thank you,” Michelle says, nodding towards the room, “for coming with me this weekend.”

“I’m glad I did,” Peter says, the look on his face changing once more as his eyes bore into hers. 

“Me too.”

The silence that falls between them is so thick and filled with tension that Michelle thinks the temperature’s skyrocketed, Peter’s eyes drifting down to her lips before looking back into her eyes.

He leans forward just as she does, like magnets pulling towards each other before he leans back -- Michelle looking at him in surprise only to laugh when he asks, “What’s the plan supposed to be for today?”

“Nothing. Pack it up and head back to the city,” Michelle says, Peter grinning at her as she continues, “Not really much of a retreat but--”

“I don’t mind,” Peter says, leaning closer to her once more before kissing her slowly. “Means we can get back to my place sooner.” 

“ _Your_ place?” Michelle says between kisses, letting Peter shift her until she’s on her back. “Why your place?”

“Closer than yours,” Peter says, kissing at the side of her mouth, her neck and trailing downwards. Michelle laughs, Peter grinning back up at her as he says, “It’s cold out there, MJ.”

“You’re not gonna let that die are you?” Michelle says, feeling the length of him against her. He closes his eyes, moving his hips over her in a way that feels amazing even though they’re still mostly clothed. 

“Nope,” Peter says, kissing her and pressing himself against her until Michelle pushes him back, Peter looking on in surprise before he grins as she straddles him.

“You better have some fucking condoms then,” Michelle says as Peter laughs, only for it to turn into a groan as she grinds her hips down, “cause I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna last.” 

“Me neither if you don’t stop-- ah-- doing that,” Peter says as Michelle grinds over him slowly, feeling him harden even more so. 

“Doing what?” Michelle says with a huff, only to close her eyes as she ruts over him with a little more purpose-- every ounce of her self-control forcing her not to rid the both of them of their shorts and get it over with.

Michelle’s horny but she’s not stupid, a distant part of her telling herself that this was just a chance for high school self’s wildest fantasies to come true. 

While sixteen-year-old Michelle would’ve loved dry humping, twenty-six year old Michelle wants more, moving off him and sliding his pants down as Peter’s eyes snap open.

“You want to--” he begins, shock turning into a moan when Michelle takes him in hand before taking him in her mouth.

It’s not everything she wants to do, not by a long-shot. But as Peter’s pants and groans spurn her on, using her free hand down to work herself over - Michelle trusts in more ways than one, that this is just a start. 

* * *

By the time they’re boarding the buses, Charlie looks pissed - scowling at them before turning away. 

“What’s his problem?” 

“Do you really want to know?” Michelle counters, Peter nodding to her as they move to board the bus - only for Harry to walk in between them.

They freeze, the three of them staring at each other awkwardly only for the awkwardness to be slightly released when Mary Jane sidles up alongside Harry, smiling at Peter and Michelle.

“Well, this was an adventure. It was great to meet you two,” Mary Jane says with a dazzling smile, turning her attention to Peter before she says, “Michelle here tells me you work at the Bugle. A photographer right?”

Peter blinks once before saying, “Yeah, I—“

“Perfect,” Mary Jane beams, deftly moving from Harry’s side over to Peter and seamlessly interweaving her arms with his, “I’ve been meaning to talk to someone about their entertainment coverage and you seem just the man for the job.”

Peter laughs, clearly seeing the distraction for what it is before looking back to Michelle - a warmth blossoming in her chest that he wanted to double check with her before he left her alone with Harry.

Michelle trusts Mary Jane though, smiling at him before looking to Mary Jane and saying, “You should listen to her, Pete. She’s going places.”

Mary Jane winks before turning her attention to Peter, launching into a story that’s light and fun as the two of them walk away.

Michelle stares at them for a beat, the swish of Mary Jane’s long red hair and the clear sound of her laughter making her smile before Harry clears his throat - bringing her attention back to him. 

“Hey. I uh, I want to apologize. For Charlie,” Harry says with a grimace, closing his eyes and sighing as he shoves his hands into his pockets. 

“For this weekend or in general?” Michelle deadpans, Harry opening his eyes and huffing out a laugh.

“Both. I’m— sorry, I don’t know what came over me this weekend. We were… we were good, you know? Right? We’re good?”

“Yeah,” Michelle says carefully, Harry exhaling loudly out of his mouth before continuing.

“Yeah, I— when Charlie saw that you were bringing a plus one, I just. I don’t know what came over me. I thought it would be Peter and then when it _was_ , I just—“ he shakes his head. “Charlie had some plan of trying to out you guys. Embarrass you. I don’t know. It was stupid. And I was… gonna go along with it.”

Harry waves a hand around dismissively before nodding towards where Mary Jane and Peter were standing. “Mary Jane cornered me last night. Said if I had any backbone I’d stop letting a guy like Charlie boss me around.”

It’s Michelle’s turn to laugh as she says, “Sounds like Mary Jane.”

“Yeah,” Harry says, only being his hand down as he says, “Anyway, she talked some sense into me and I just… I don’t want this to be awkward. You’re a vital part of the team at Oscorp and I don’t want my stupidity to drive you away.”

“Or I’d sue hell out of you,” Michelle says half-seriously, Harry laughing as he nods. 

“Yeah, you’d probably win too.”

A silence falls between them, not quite awkward but not quite comfortable when Harry nods once again to where Peter and Mary Jane are deep in conversation, “so you two huh?”

“Yeah,” Michelle says, “it’s new.”

Harry looks as if he doesn’t believe her, a flash of something passing behind his eyes before he deflates - Michelle seeing the quality that had attracted him to her in the first place as he forces his insecurity aside and says, “I’m happy for you, MJ. Really.”

Mary Jane’s laughter rings out, several heads turning to her as Peter grins - clearly pleased with himself from whatever stupid joke he’d made.

“I’m happy for you too, Harry. Mary Jane’s incredible,” Michelle says, only for Harry to laugh and reply, “yeah. Incredibly out of my league.”

Michelle has the good sense not to laugh even if she agrees, Harry staring at Peter and Mary Jane talk before turning his attention back to her. 

“I hope everything works out for you two,” Harry says, Michelle getting the sense that he means it sincerely as she nods.

“Thanks, Harry,” she says, only to get the feeling like she’s being stared at - looking back over and seeing both Peter and Mary Jane smiling at her.

Mary Jane looks radiant, Michelle already anticipating that regardless of what happens between her and Harry that she absolutely wants to stay in touch with her. But it’s the look in Peter’s eyes that bowls her over, searing and so focused that she feels naked.

It’s a good feeling, a warmth in her chest and a stirring in her gut that they were so close to getting back to the city, so close to getting home - so close to the end of a weekend but to the start of something more.

Michelle smiles at Peter, holding his gaze as she replies.

“I think it will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The world feels like it's on fire but hey, at least these two kids are happy :)


End file.
